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V O L . X X X I I N O. I V F E B R UA R Y 2 3 , 2 0 2 6 16 S P O R T S / T O U R I S M / R E C R E AT I O N F O C U S "I am a firm believer that no one goes to a game to watch their team lose," Paine says over breakfast at a Portland hotel ahead of a weekend homestand. As a genuine fan with long-term commitment, Paine is a "real deviation from what I was used to working with Comcast where they looked at us as a line item," Maine Mariners CEO Adam Goldberg says in his sports memora- bilia-stacked office on the ground floor of Cross Insurance Arena. "ey looked at us as a department, where Dexter really looks at us like a business." Despite hockey's already high costs — staff salaries along with travel and housing for players are the team's biggest expenses — both Paine and Goldberg view the latest collective bargaining agreement that increases pay and ben- efits as "fair." e pact, reached in late December between the Professional Hockey Players' Association and the Niagara Falls, Canada-based ECHL league, followed a brief strike that forced the Mariners to postpone three games. e Mariners increase game and group ticket prices incrementally each season, according to spokesman Michael Keeley. Despite some scheduling overlaps with the Maine Celtics when both sports are in season, Goldberg finds other forms of entertainment to be greater competition for consumers' wallets. "In the first half of the year we compete against high school sports, we compete against the NFL," he says. "And in the second half of the year, we compete with movies and outdoor events. Just because it's the winter doesn't mean that everybody stays indoors." Even after two decades in minor- league sports, the former marketing executive says that juggling game opera- tions, sales, marketing, ice maintenance and hockey operations can be "a little daunting at times." "As much as I'd love to just come up with wacky promotions, you can get bogged down in the finances," he says. With two months to go before hockey season winds down in April, the team is going through approv- als for plans to build a practice rink in Scarborough that the team would lease and share with other groups. Could hockey ever become a summer sport? "Maybe it's something we need to look into," Goldberg says. A scrappy soccer startup Portland Hearts of Pine soccer matches at Fitzpatrick Stadium are an amped- up world apart from even the rowdiest high school football and lacrosse games at the city-owned venue. In a matter of hours, 50 to 100 game- day staffers turn the grounds into a mega-party zone with food trucks, an activity-laden kids zone and sponsored drinking dens for the 21-plus crowd. But at kickoff, it's all about the soccer, absent any in-game entertain- ment save the sponsored "Call Joe" yellow cards fans brandish every time an opponent commits a foul. e club, owned by 30 investors including founder Gabe Hoffman- Johnson, sold out its first season, beating the previous attendance record set by the Richmond (Va.) Kickers in 2023. e Hearts are expecting another sellout for 20 games in 2026, with sales of single- match tickets to start in March. "Ultimately, we lose money each year given the high costs we face and given we have only 20 games, so every bit of revenue helps to try and build a sustainable business that excites fans and wins champion- ships," says Kevin Schohl, the team's president and chief business officer. e former sports-betting indus- try executive, who helped launch a pro soccer team in Atlanta more than a decade ago, says the Hearts reinvest all their revenue back into the players. "We're not a farm team of some bigger entity, we're here to win a championship for Maine," he says. at also adds up to steep travel costs, including cross-country flights to play teams on the West Coast, plus video broadcast production costs. "On an annual basis, the hope is that by Year ree or so, we can get pretty close to break even," says Schohl, who describes sports fran- chises as an asset that appreciates over time: "You've got to have deep pockets and strong conviction because it's tough to make money." ough some Hearts fans resell tick- ets for games they can't attend, Schohl says that most give them to friends or colleagues, turning them into sought- after "social currency." Merchandise is another hot ticket, with close to 27,000 team jerseys sold in 50 states and 20-plus countries. But in their second year, "how much more merchandise can they sell?" asks Brian Corcoran, an investor in the team with his wife, WEX CEO Melissa Smith. As a long-time sports marketing executive, Corcoran is well-versed in the sector's financial struggles. "ere's an old joke in minor league sports: How do you make a little money? You start with a lot," he says. "e reality is that only about a third of the teams are actually cash- flow positive." ough bullish on plans by the » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E You've got to have deep pockets and strong conviction because it's tough to make money. — Kevin Schohl Portland Hearts of Pine P H O T O / J I M N E U G E R Caden Villegas (No. 17) of the Maine Mariners on defense in the team's 4-2 loss to the Worcester (Mass.) Railers in the Cross Insurance Arena. The Mariners were garbed in retro Portland Pirates uniforms to honor their predecessor team.

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